NEW YORK: Prosecutors opening Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial described Wednesday (Apr 23) how he ignored his victims’ pleas to stop and abused his position to make them “feel small”.
The trial, which began with jury selection last week, will force survivors who helped spark the “MeToo” movement to testify against Weinstein once more.
The former Miramax studio boss is charged with the 2006 sexual assault of former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and the 2013 rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann. He also faces a new count for an alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old in 2006.
Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey recounted Weinstein’s alleged attacks in graphic detail, saying all three women had begged him to stop, but that he had “all the power… He made all these women feel small.”
The prosecutor described how Weinstein pestered Haleyi with multiple requests for massages and sexual favors before she found herself alone with him in an apartment one day in 2006.
“The defendant, three times (her) size, kissed her, groped her, and she told him again she was not interested,” Lucey said.
“He pulled Mimi towards him … She quickly realized he was not going take a no for an answer,” the prosecutor added.
Lucey detailed how Weinstein then forced himself on Haleyi, performing oral sex on her despite her pleas for him to stop.
The award-winning movie producer, who was brought into the Manhattan criminal court in a wheelchair and wore a dark business suit, glanced occasionally at the jury as the trial got underway.
Lucey described the defendant as “one of the most powerful men in … show business,” telling the majority-female jury that “when he wanted something, he took it.”
